Week 12 Rankings: Top 40 Running Backs

Injuries are starting to take a major toll, with several high profile backs either going down, or likely staying down, as we enter the week. Luckily the byes are behind us, but that doesn’t necessarily make decisions easy. Let’s take a look at how everything shakes out for the coming week:

Doug Martin – Tampa Bay Buccaneers – vs. Atlanta

Adrian Peterson – Minnesota Vikings – at Chicago

Arian Foster – Houston Texans – at Detroit

Chris Johnson – Tennessee Titans – at Jacksonville

C.J. Spiller – Buffalo Bills – at Indianapolis

Marshawn Lynch – Seattle Seahawks – at Miami

Frank Gore – San Francisco 49ers – at New Orleans

Trent Richardson – Cleveland Browns – vs. Pittsburgh

Ray Rice – Baltimore Ravens – at San Diego

BenJarvus Green-Ellis – Cincinnati Bengals – vs. Oakland

Matt Forte – Chicago Bears – vs. Minnesota

Alfred Morris – Washington Redskins – at Dallas

Jamaal Charles – Kansas City Chiefs – vs. Denver

Stevan Ridley – New England Patriots – at New York Jets

Marcel Reece – Oakland Raiders – at Cincinnati

Felix Jones – Dallas Cowboys – vs. Washington

Steven Jackson – St. Louis Rams – at Arizona

Ryan Mathews – San Diego Chargers – vs. Baltimore

Bryce Brown – Philadelphia Eagles – vs. Carolina

Ronnie Hillman – Denver Broncos – at Kansas City

Ahmad Bradshaw – New York Giants – vs. Green Bay

Jalen Parmelee – Jacksonville Jaguars – vs. Tennessee

Vick Ballard – Indianapolis Colts – vs. Buffalo

Michael Turner – Atlanta Falcons – at Tampa Bay

Rashard Mendenhall – Pittsburgh Steelers – at Cleveland

Reggie Bush – Miami Dolphins – vs. Seattle

Jonathan Stewart – Carolina Panthers – at Philadelphia

Shonn Greene – New York Jets – vs. New England

Mikel Leshoure – Detroit Lions – vs. Houston

LaRod Stephens-Howling – Arizona Cardinals – vs. St. Louis

James Starks – Green Bay Packers – at New York Giants

Mark Ingram – New Orleans Saints – vs. San Francisco

Daniel Thomas – Miami Dolphins – vs. Seattle

Beanie Wells – Arizona Cardinals – vs. St. Louis

Jonathan Dwyer – Pittsburgh Steelers – at Cleveland

Donald Brown – Indianapolis Colts – vs. Buffalo

Andre Brown – New York Giants – vs. Green Bay

Chris Ivory – New Orleans Saints – vs. San Francisco

Daryl Richardson – St. Louis Rams – at Arizona

Ronnie Brown – San Diego Chargers – vs. Baltimore

Thoughts:

As we have said before, Doug Martin has become virtually matchup proof. Of course, having a favorable matchup doesn’t hurt anything (Atlanta is allowing 130.5 rushing yards per game and 10 TD). He is coming off another impressive outing, with 138 rushing yards on 24 carries, while adding another 23 yards through the air. He has quickly emerged as one of the elite running backs in the game.

A few of the top backs in the league draw difficult matchups this week, most notably Adrian Peterson vs. the Bears. Of course, over his previous four games Peterson has averaged 157.3 yards per game while scoring five touchdowns. The stretch includes impressive outings against the Seahawks (at Seattle) and, the way he’s playing right now, it is impossible to downgrade him for matchup purposes. He’s a Top 5 back and is going to continue to get opportunities to produce.

Chris Johnson is looking more and more like his old self, averaging 140.3 rushing yards per game and a touchdown over his past four games (including matchups with the Bears and Dolphins). Now, taking on a Jaguars defense that is among the worst in the league stopping the run (137.3 yards per game, 14 TD), he should be counted on to continue to wreak havoc once again.

Even if Fred Jackson is healthy we have to think C.J. Spiller is going to be the focal point of the offense, right? What else does he have to do to earn that respect? For now he is coming in as a RB1 under that pretense, but the news this week could change that.

Sure, there has been talk of a Darren McFadden return, but we all know his history of injuries and slow recoveries. Plus, Marcel Reece is producing which helps give the Raiders reason to be cautious with their star running back. For now McFadden is being left off the rankings.

We can blame Ryan Mathews’ Week 11 lack of effectiveness to being banged up (47 yards on 15 carries), but at this point who are we kidding? In what was supposed to be a breakout campaign, Mathews has been a huge bust. He remains a viable RB2, but until he proves otherwise he needs to be pushed down on the rankings.

Speaking of struggling running backs, would it surprise anyone if the Dolphins turned to Daniel Thomas at some point soon in order to see if he can handle regular duties in 2013? In the past few weeks, Reggie Bush certainly hasn’t cut it…

Will this be the week DeMarco Murray returns to the lineup? Even if he does, given his lengthy absence there is going to be some risk as to how many touches he gets. At this point it ie impossible to trust him.

With Beanie Wells expected back this week, LaRod Stephens picked the right game to bust out in, didn’t he? That said, I would expect this to be a time share (at least), with Wells eventually take on the bulk of the duties.

We will be taking a look at some of the other injury replacements, like Bryce Brown and Ronnie Hillman, later this morning.

In a standard pt league I have Richardson, Mathews, Mendenhall, Murray & Reece. I also just picked up James Starks. Murray is out of the question. So who should I start for my RB1 & RB2 and possibly flex?

My gut tells me Richardson & Reece are my starters. But Mendenhall & Mathews are big question marks. Mendenhall is in a RB committee, and Mathews is not putting up numbers.

Gonna have to decide who to start at RB1 and RB2 before al morris’ game on thanksgiving. I’ve got forte, morris, spiller, charles and leaning towards starting spiller at RB1..would you start morris on thursday or wait and pick between forte and charles?

Brenden – Spiller is the must play, then I have the other three back-to-back-to-back. I’d lean Charles (slightly), but Morris is tough to bench as he is developing into an every down back. It’s between those two for me.

I’m starting J. Charles as my RB1…DMC and Murray are out and Felix Jones is questionable in many ways. I picked up Bryce Brown and Shane Vareen. Who should be my RB2? I have Cecil Shorts as my Flex with AJ and Cruz as my WR’s.

Thanks for the reply…I went with Brown mid-day to see if any of my trade offers would go through. I declined on Jones simply because I was concerned with his knees.

At 8:19 p.m., I tried to switch to Vereen at the last minute because I felt NE would pound NY but ESPN’s clock must have been different than mine as it would not allow switch even though game had not started yet (didn’t start until 8:30 or so. Of course, Vereen has a great fantasy day!